Where Truth is Irrelevant

I haven't commented on the serious issues revolving around Haditha allegations because I don't believe that it serves any purpose to do so until the official investigation announces its results and the facts are known, but Daniel Henninger in todays WSJ Opinionjournal points out that the peril of Haditha might be one where guilt or innocence doesn't matter: namely, the Vietnam Syndrome giving way to the Iraq Syndrome.

The Vietnam Syndrome, a loss of confidence in the efficacy of American military engagement, was mainly a failure of U.S. elites. But it's different this time. This presidency has been steadfast in war. No matter. In a piece this week on the White House's efforts to rally the nation to the idea of defeating terrorism abroad to thwart another attack on the U.S., the AP's Nedra Pickler wrote: "But that hasn't kept the violence and unrest out of the headlines every day." This time the despondency looks to be penetrating the general population. And the issue isn't just body counts; it's more than that.

The missions in Iraq and Afghanistan grew from the moral outrage of September 11. U.S. troops, the best this country has yet produced, went overseas to defend us against repeating that day. Now it isn't just that the war on terror has proven hard; the men and women fighting for us, the magnificent 99%, are being soiled in a repetitive, public way that is unbearable.

The greatest danger at this moment is that the American public will decide it wants to pull back because it has concluded that when the U.S. goes in, it always gets hung out to dry.

The frightening thing about this is that the allegations against the Marines does not even have to be true for this to happen. All it needs is a press willing to trumpet the charges over and over again and speculate relentlessly until the necessary impact is made on public opinion. As we've seen with Abu Ghraib and other scandals that turned out to be less than they really were and where wrongdoers were punished swiftly and fairly, it doesn't matter when those reporting and commenting on it regard the incidents as nothing more than ammunition to further their agenda.